


Rex Quattuor Angelus

by littlemissnicole



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Agender Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, a present for my moirail!, have fun with this assholes, me her and some friends battle the black king, totally didn't write most of this to Rex Duodecim Angelus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 00:05:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2830898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemissnicole/pseuds/littlemissnicole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A gift for my moirail!! Her, I, and two friends battle the Black King and win the Game</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rex Quattuor Angelus

They're finally together. The game kept them separate for what feels like months, years. They've kept contact over pesterchum through prototyping and entering the medium, and Trey and herself had waited on tenterhooks when Nicole started reporting that Alex was going shithive maggots. they're still like that, Merri can feel it when she reaches for them with her Mind powers. It's like trying to grab a power conduit, just pure, raw energy. There's something _off _about that energy, an undercurrent of despair and pure _do not want _.____

Merri jumps back as they takes a swipe at her, snarling. They weren't a very good tactical fighter; brute strength and low blows had been their style. They and Nicole were similar in that way, but Nicole was smaller, lighter. She'd always for hiding and then exploding. 

Trey's never lasted against her, but he can hold his own against Alex well enough. 

Nicole's got her sickles out, smooth and sharp and flashing midair. The chains jangle and clank as she spins and tugs. She manages to catch Alex's attention as she pulls them away from Merri.

From what Merri can see she's only going for surface damage, but Alex seems to legitimately want to hurt her, ducking and trying to catch the chains before they recoil. 

Their hands should be ribbons, but God tier healing apparently applies no matter what, because they're fine, still making grab after grab. Trey jumps in, trying to get a hit. 

It lands. Trey isn't too good at the thiefy thing, but it's enough. He jumps back like he's been tazed, flying over to where Merri is looking for an opening to get her own hit in. 

"This anger, it's not normal. I've dealt with them pissed off before and this is... different. More violent. This isn't like them, it's not." 

Merri makes a contemplative noise in the back of her throat. "I've noticed it too. They don't want this, whatever's happening." 

"HELL YEAH, SON." Nicole yells, startling them both into looking at her. She's managed to get her chains wrapped around Alex, both her sickles in one of her hands. She hovers at least five feet away, keeping the chains taut. "Yo, a little help here?" She asks, and adds, sympathetically "I can't heal them until someone deals with whatever's causing the trouble, sorry."

"Why don't we just leave them so they can go rage monster on the Black King?" 

"Can't. It'd work, yeah, but we'd never be able to coordinate attacks and afterwards they'd still be shithive." Merri shrugs, wincing when she floats too close and Alex lashes a kick out at her. "Trey, can you..?" 

"Do I have to?" He asks, eyes wide. "I don't want whatever's making them go bugfuck nuts, man."

"I think whatever's doing it can only do it to them, or at least the only reason its so bad with them is because they're THEM." 

"What the fuck does that mean?" 

Merri sighs. "It means, whatever's doing this is only this bad because they've always had a terrible temper. They're just making it worse. Steal their rage and you'll probably be able to manage it. Hell, you're the most equipped to handle it, since your thiefy thing helps you suppress it." 

"What the fuck gives you that impression?" 

"I've been watching you fight for over a week, you dumbass, I know you so well right now." 

Trey takes a deep breath, looking nervously at Merri and then at Nicole. They both make encouraging motions at him, and Merri keeps Alex distracted as Trey drops to the ground and comes back up behind them. 

Alex rage leaves a terrible taste in his mouth and a writhing, whining thing in his mind, whispering seeds of mistrust and lies. 

Things that will specifically set off Alex. Things that only something that dug into their brain and pulled out their worst secrets would know. 

Trey snarls. Merri'd seen this, seen him take Alex's anger and fly away and it's so, so tempting, but the way this thing is whining in his ear about "put me back in my body, please. I just want to go home" makes his stomach curl. 

Trey clenches his fists and doesn't move. 

Alex is hanging limp from Nicole's sickle chains, hopefully unconscious but Trey can't tell. The red glow of her hands against their head is stark against the white and black of the Skaian battlefield.

The world rumbles as Alex rises again, shaky but on their own. Nicole's grinning, welcoming them back to the world of the conscious, and Alex is smiling back, stretching and JESUS CHRIST THE BLACK KING.

He just stepped on Alex. Nicole was barely out of range, and Merri's still in the air. All three of them are probably wearing the exact same expression of shock, eyes wide and mouths flopping. Nicole's still on the ground, Sylph gown spread about her like a puddle. 

The Black King is HUGE, taller than even the castles that litter Skaia and those are massive. Nicole takes shelter behind some ruins as he raises his foot to try again. Trey and Merri dive for her. 

"Jesus fuck, Nicole, are you okay?" Merri asks, crash-landing on her knees next to her friend. Trey lands much more gracefully a few meters away, thankful his dark purple godtier outfit blends better in the black tiles compared to Merri's green or Nicole's red. 

"Fine, just shaky." Nicole says, showing her hands, which jerk and look like the time she'd forgone food for two days. "Good thing about going godtier is Mana drain is no longer a thing, but Jesus, Alex." She stares past them to where their corpse lays, crumpled on the ground a few dozen feet away. 

"They have to come back, right?" Nicole asks, reaching out for Merri. "There was no heroism in that, I wasn't pushed out of the way, and there's no justice in killing them if they were freshly healed and finally in control of their own actions." 

"There's no way of knowing," Trey says. "If it was ruled, we would've known when they first died. All we can do now is wait." 

So they do. The Black King rages on, blasting rubble on the left of him, sometimes behind them, launching rubble and skittering debris at them. They don't know what to be on the lookout for until they see it. 

It looks like purple smoke, rising from nowhere and engulfing their corpse until they seems to glow, floating up and placed onto their feet. They look around, spotting everyone waving them frantically towards the group. 

They take off, darting towards their cover, grinning and crash landing into the pile of their friends. "Holy crap am I glad you guys are okay," they say, grinning. Nicole laughs, and Merri smiles. Trey's grinning also, clapping Alex on the shoulder. 

A roar from the Black King breaks them apart. "We need a plan." Merri says, grimly. 

"What're we going to do? It took all twelve of the trolls to take down their king, and it's only the four of us!" 

"We'll wing it," Nicole offers. "Planning's got us nowhere but in trouble." 

"We can't not plan," Trey protests, "Otherwise we're dead in the water." 

"Take turns?" Alex offers. "That worked with the trolls, after all." 

"It's our best bet," Merri says, "All in favor?" Everyone raises their hands. 

"Turns it is, then." 

"Well, wait," Nicole says. "We just have to break his scepter and he shrinks, right? He becomes unprototyped?" 

"I think so, why?" 

"So why don't we just do that?"

"Because it took the highest roll EVER from Vriska's fluorite octet to do that? Do you know how rare that is?"

"Well duh, but we make him fall and it breaks. Do you see how tall this fucker is? No way it'll survive that fall." 

Trey nods. "Its better than anything else we've come up with. Do you have any idea how to do it?"

Nicole shakes her head. "Absolutely none. I'd say that if he was human we could sever his achilles tendon, but who the fuck knows what anatomy carapaces have." 

"What if we just cut off his feet?" Alex offers. 

"That's an idea," Merri agrees. "How long should it take?" 

Trey hefts his alchemized shitty sord onto his shoulder. "If I pull out something other than my sowrd here, barely anytime at all." 

"Yeah, yeah. We'll need to provide distractions. Flybys and scratches. Try and blind him if you can." 

They all nod. Nicole puts her hand out, and the others pile on. "We got this. This game is our bitch. Break on three, okay? 1. 2. 3!" 

They break apart, Alex and the girls flying up and attacking the king from behind. The King roars, the sound alone nearly knocking the three of them out of the sky. 

Nicole weaves, darting around his tentacles and getting him diagonal across the face, and Merri snorts when she hears the girl shout something that sounds suspiciously like "bad hentai". 

Alex is darting around, their knives coated coated in blood and making their hands slip as they fight through dersites and tentacles alike. 

Merri's doing surface damage, and manages to take out one of His eyes with a slash of her canesword. 

He swats her away with a well-flailed paw, and she goes down, but manages to catch herself. Nicole gets caught in his flail, but isn't so lucky as to start flying and crashes into what was their makeshift shelter. 

Merri dives to check on her. "Did anyone get the plates on that truck that hit me?" Nicole asks, holding her head. Her hand is stained with red, but when she takes it away there's no wound. 

Merri huffs, glancing around for Trey. He's on the other side of the battle, waiting until they've managed to get the King still for long enough for him to get a clear flight pattern. 

"I'm going to go help him," Merri decides. "They're's no way he's going to be able to take out both His ankles in one swipe. You and Alex stay safe, alright?" 

Nicole nods, looking a lot less bleary, standing up. "Back to the hentai!" she says, giggling. Then, more seriously: "Stay safe, bab. We need you." 

Merri nods, ignoring the ways her eyes itch. "You too, bab." She holds out her fist. "Didney princesses, man." 

"Didney princesses." Nicole agrees, bumping her fist to her friends. 

They take off, parting ways almost immediately. Nicole immediately goes to help Alex, hoping to get a second of peace with them to explain whats going on. 

The next few minutes are a blur. Nicole and Alex work in tandem, shouting and taunting each other. The tentacles get a lucky hit in, and Alex goes flying, landing on His arm. They get up fast enough Nicole knows they're fine, but instead of heading back towards the main part of the fight, they makes the signal for 'plan' and 'keep going'. 

Nicole shrugs. If her friend has a plan they've got a plan. She contents herself with leading the tentacles on a merry chase around His legs, getting them hopelessly tangled and hopefully holding Him in place. 

It works, and she takes off for the stratosphere as Merri and Trey take off, swords at the ready. 

They collide with His ankles the second Alex's knives cut through His hand, making him drop the scepter as He goes down, making a noise like a dying whale. The scepter shatters when it hits the battlefield. 

He shrinks, becoming no taller than the Dersites Alex was killing earlier. Nicole divebombs for him, and summarily has His head sitting in her lap. 

"I killed the Black King!" She cheers, grinning ear-to-ear as the others land around her, collapsing on her and carefully avoiding the head. 

"You killed a shrunken him," Alex shrugs. "I'm the one who made him drop the scepter." 

"We're the ones who made him drop it, what're you talking about?" Merri asks from where she's pressed against Nicole's back. 

"Whatev, maing," Trey says, flopping his legs across Nicole's and using a smooth bit of rubble to prop himself up. "What now?" 

That gives them pause, and eventually Nicole shrugs. "We won, technically. Now we wait to be teleported to the door." 

Merri yawns, and next to her Alex copies. "Nap time while we wait." Merri decides. The three of them puppy pile it after scrounging up dersite tapestries to use in place of blankets. Skaia is bright, but no one has trouble sleeping. 

-  
They've done it. 

They've actually, literally done it. After doomed timelines and dying and killing and building, they've done it. The door looms over them, the Skaia based doorknob just at hand height, glowing a soft and comforting blue. 

From her left Merri can hear Nicole suck in a shocked breath, and Trey swears in surprise from behind him, supporting Alex. They've all gone god tier, a traumatizing experience, (Merri went with someone's advice of sleeping pills. It'd worked, but it'd hurt. Better than what Nicole told her, though. Apparently, she'd gone god tier from a gut wound.)

Nicole takes her hand, nudging her forward with a smile. They're gods, now. Healing, Nicole is. She's always been good at that. 

Merri's always been good at convincing people to see things her way, even if she lacked the confidence to do it. 

Trey and Alex hobble over, balanced carefully on each other. They may be gods, now, but Boss Battle wounds do not just heal. Merri's tempted to call a break, because with the door so close they should be fine, the black king's battle took a lot out of them, but the memory of the sessions before them, how Jack Noir wiped out the trolls chance of winning just because they'd taken a dramatic pause.

Merri takes a deep breath. Lets it out. Reaches. 

The doorknob is warm in her hand. It promises peace and refuge. 

She opens the door.


End file.
